Is it fair?

Wealth and responsibility

Dec 04, 2002

To worry publicly about the increasing disparities of wealth and income in this country is to invite the charge of fomenting “class warfare.” Nevertheless, consider: Top CEOs earn 1,000 times the pay of an average worker—a ratio that has increased exponentially in the past three decades. Over the past 20 years the income of the top 1 percent of Americans rose 157 percent, that of middle-income families rose 10 percent, and that of people in the bottom fifth fell slightly. Forty-three million Americans, including 30 million in families headed by a worker, lack health care insurance.

Meanwhile, the focus in Congress continues to be on more tax cuts for the wealthy, and the centerpiece of the effort is the drive to permanently repeal the estate tax—a tax on the money that the wealthiest people leave to their heirs.